This is Russia…lose your car, go to the police, get laughed at, go to a website supposed to be run by thieves, get scammed. There was a similar website for stolen property in the UK, but I dont know what happened to it. The media never followed up the story…

This is one of those events that make me uncomfortable. Have to see what pans out, but the great fear always was that these “terrorism” powers would be used against dissidents and on behalf of industrialists/private enterprise. Looks awfully like that in this case, but let’s see who gets brought to court and for what. At least they aren’t going to disappear….yet.

Figures obtained by Guardian under Freedom of Information Act. Argument appears to be that more children are being taken into care and more are going missing from care. Not sure that the argument hangs together, but 957 “picked up by local authorities”, 400 from Afghanistan and 200 from Africa, in the last 8 months of 2008. Journalism in this piece a bit sloppy.

Rod Liddle, normally a Jeremy Clarkson soundalike has a bash at the Met. What interests me is this adoption of the left liberal clothing by commentators who are normally “vox populi”. The comments are reasonably fair, and suddenly Blair Peach is a martyr too, even though back then the Rod Liddles were totally with the police. Why have they changed sides? How does it further the attack on Gordon Brown?

There have been coordinated raids on properties across the North of England and a number of arrests. Bob Quick, senior police officer in charge of counter-terrorism was photographed getting out of a car with a document visible giving details of the raids. He has now resigned, but the story goes off at a number of tangents. The most important one will be whether the raids had to be rushed and mistakes made as a result. Equally important is the question of whether a major al Qaeda inspired operation has been thwarted. Then there is the problem of the rights of photographers and media publishing of material, which will bring up the hoary old D-notice system. Finally, the Boris Johnson question will also arise. Who do senior Met officers give their resignation to? The Home Secretary or the Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority? There is also the question of why relations are so bad between senior police officers and the Tories, but that wont get a lot of discussion…